Countries considered direct and indirect threats to the United States, broken into three tiers by the Council on Foreign Relations. Tier one: contingencies that are direct threats are circled with dotted black lines and have lightning bolts to the U.S. Tier two: contingencies that affect countries of strategic importance are circled with dotted grey and have grey lines to the U.S. Tier three: contingencies that could have severe humanitarian consequences, but are countries of limited strategic importance are circled with dotted white and have white lines to the U.S.